WORSHIP AND
DANCE:
Missionary-Evangelist
Esther Thornton
Psalm 100:4
Enter into his gates
with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and
bless his name.
It is easy to praise
God when everything is going our way. But, it is a sacrifice to praise when we
feel like the heavens are brass and we are waiting for our “Isaac” to come.
But, if we will keep our focus on Him through hard times and times of waiting,
we will more quickly come into the fullness of our calling. If we murmur and
complain we are delaying what could have been our appointed time from God for
that which we desire of Him.
1. Worship, praise,
rejoicing and the dance is the atmosphere of Heaven of the saints and
Angels, in response
to the glory and majesty of God. (Rev. 7:9-12; Rev. 4:10-11; 5:9-14). Heaven is
filled with music and singing praises unto God, day and night.
2. We must worship
Him in Spirit and in truth. (Jn. 4:23-24) But the hour cometh, and now is, when
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the
Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit and they that worship Him
must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
3. The Dance is a
form of worship. It is taking what God has given us (body, soul, and spirit)
and joining in oneness with the Holy Spirit. Dancing as praise has produced
healings, deliverances and miracles. It brings the presence and power of God
and many have been delivered as they have danced from things and habits that
have bound them.
It has brought people
out of depression or spiritual dryness. We will overcome persecution by dancing
and defeat un-forgiveness by rejoicing. High praises with understanding will
cause us to possess what God has for us.
(2 Chr. 20 praise
and understanding were combined and Israel won the victory).
4. Joy, dancing, and
healing go together. (Jer. 31:13). A man had an incurable disease and was in
the hospital, but was only growing worse and spending a lot of money. So, he
asked his family to take him out of there and put him in a hotel, and get him
all of the funny shows that they could - the old ones like “Abbot and Costello”
and “The Three stooges”. So, they did and he lay in his hotel bed and laughed
and laughed and laughed the belly kind of laughter - and he was healed and able
to go home. I don’t even know if the man was a Christian, but he was healed
because he was following a Biblical principle:
“A merry heart doeth
good like a medicine.” People have been healed while in holy laughter. Joy is
one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
5. But, the greatest
healing is salvation, which is the healing of the soul. As we go to Africa, we
see hundreds saved in evangelistic crusades and people coming into the churches
there to be fed. And, this is the greatest miracle. (I Pet. 1:24-25). But, this
doesn’t mean that we ignore or place little value on physical healing. (I Jn.
1:2). God wants us to be balanced but to know the priorities. Jesus went about
teaching and preaching the kingdom of God and healing all that were sick and
oppressed with the devil. His ministry was in perfect balance.
6. The finished work
of Christ (death, burial, and resurrection) and His precious blood will be
praised in Heaven throughout all eternity. And, we need to understand and
appropriate that blood for power over all the works of darkness and to worship,
praise and glorify the Lamb of God with fullness of joy and dancing.
7. What is the time
that we are living in right now? The time of Moses is past and the time of
Joshua is here where we are to take back what the enemy has stolen. We are also
in the days of Elijah where the power of God is coming forth in all of the
earth. It is the day of the Apostle and prophet. It is the day of healings and
miracles. And, it is the time of the last great harvest. When Jesus ascended
into Heaven after His death and resurrection, the last command He gave to the
church was to go into all the world and preach the gospel. (Mk. 16:15-20).
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Some Healings,
Miracles, and Deliverances that I have seen in our ministry: The grace of God
we will never understand; the mercy of God; and the value that He places upon a
human soul.
I used to visit a
man when we lived in Portland who had three degenerative diseases. But, one day
I had time left over to visit someone else. I asked the nurses who never got a
visitor and they referred me to a Finnish lady named, Anna. I visited her one
time each week for three weeks, just smiling at her and showing her my baby who
was on my back.
But, on the third
visit, the Holy Spirit spoke to me to lead her to Jesus. I wondered how I could
do this in her language but God told me to open my mouth and He would fill it!
So, I did and she began to answer me! I asked her (in Finnish) to take my hand
if she wanted to received Jesus (keeping mine straight down to my side) and she
reached out for my hand! I led her to Jesus! But, when I left, the cleaning
lady who had been mopping the floor in the room told me she was so glad someone
could speak Finnish to visit with Anna! I told her I didn’t know a word of
Finnish but that God had given me a way to communicate with Anna! I came back
to visit Anna a few weeks later and when I came into the nursing home, I saw a
list posted above the door of those deceased, and there was the name “Anna”!
How merciful is our God to find a way when there seemed to be no way to reach
Anna!
There was a lady who
had been beaten by her husband. Had to carry buckets of water from creek to
raise her 6 children. Husband caused her to go into witchcraft. One ear she
couldn’t hear from beatings. I was in large A/G church and pastor called me
forward to pray deliverance for this woman. Other pastors were around her,
trying to name spirits but to no avail. God just told me to exercise the power
of God on her behalf, so I did and the demons left her. I then led her to the
Lord and then she saw a book with gold edges and a language that she didn’t
know, but she began speaking it and got the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When
she got up off of the floor, her ear popped open and she could hear perfectly.
She went home and couldn’t stop laughing for a couple of hours!
A lady I was
introduced to was really going through problems in her marriage and home. She
was so depressed. So, I took her with me to speak at Womens’ Aglow in Portland.
I spoke on the joy of the Lord and when I laid hands on her, she was slain in
the Spirit and got holy laughter. She said the next day at work that she
couldn’t stop laughing.
Another lady who
comes to our mtgs. Was going through a hard time with her marriage and she was
depressed and defeated. I taught this lesson about dancing before the Lord and
she went home and did it. And, she came into a higher realm spiritually than
ever before and every time I saw her after that, she had the victory!
One day the devil
came into our home to try to cause a ruckus. I danced into every room of the
house with the high praises of God on my lips and within the next few minutes
the devil had run so fast and hard that we didn’t even see his backside running
away!
A lady in Africa had
three medical conditions. She had been prayed for in the church but was not
healed. But, she didn’t lose her faith. I was holding revival mtgs. In that
church and she came forward for prayer for healing. She testified at the end of
the mtgs. That God had touched her and that, when she went back to the dr., he
confirmed her healing of all three diseases or sicknesses.
A lady came forward
for prayer in a large church in Africa. I prophesied to her that she had been
barren but that God was going to give her children. The next year, her pastor
was in our home and said that he had talked with his wife on the phone and that
the lady was in the hospital right now with twins!
Another lady in
Africa, I prophesied to that God was going to give her a car. That is not the
“norm” over there to have a car. But, when I came back to that church to speak,
she called me aside and with great joy showed me a beautiful car God had given
her!
How do some of these
miracles relate to worship, joy, or the dance? When I minister to people, I
minister in the joy of the Lord and in S. Africa recently in a tent mtg. Of
2,000, I even found myself dancing across the platform in joy. The people
immediately caught the Spirit that was upon me and started vigorously dancing
themselves! When I began to minister to the people at that same mtg., a lady
began to scream out from demons and I rushed down to her and she was set free
in the name of Jesus!
A lady in Africa who
was the Asst. Manager of the Pipeline Co. had gone to the noon mtgs. Where I
spoke for 3 yrs. But was not converted. She was married but had a number of
boyfriends. But, I didn’t know anything about her or who she was until much
later. But, I said at that mtg. That money, nor sex nor anything can satisfy
the human soul, but Jesus gives water where you will never thirst again. She
came in her big, fancy car to the little church with the tin roof where I
preached that night. She came forward with others for prayer. When I came to
her, I said, “Change, I see change!” Tears rolled down her face and she
accepted the Lord. The next day at work, the switchboard operator told her five
times that she had calls from boyfriends, but she refused them all, saying that
now she was born again!
In that same little
tin-roofed church I prayed for a 3 or 4 yr. Old child who was paralyzed from
birth and had never walked. He began to walk after that. (give them paper on
this).
There are too many
stories to tell of what the Lord has done. But God is still in the saving,
healing, and delivering business! And, we give Him all the glory and praise for
all that He has done, is doing, and is going to do through each one of us, who
are His body - the glorious bride of Christ!
He has said that
greater things than these that he did, we shall do. But, He is our example in
all things and by His Spirit will do great and mighty things through each one
of us!
Esther
Thornton,
Global Evangelism Fellowship
